Rob Oliver, a below knee amputee, has been training hard in recent months and this has led to him gaining a place  in the Paracanoe World Championships which runs over two days from  May 16-17, 2012.

Rob, who had part of his leg amputated after a sporting incident, is one of the newest members of the GB paracanoeing squad in a sport that will make its Paralympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016.

Spotted at an ID talent day Rob has been consistently setting the fastest times on the squad and now has an opportunity to show his skill in competition.

His dedication to the sport is illustrated by his decision to have a prosthetic water sports leg made by Dorset Orthopaedic.

The sport has given Rob a new lease of life.

There are three classifications in paracanoe — LTA, which is for athletes with leg, trunk and arm mobility; TA for those with trunk and arm mobility and A, for those with arm mobility only.

Find out more at www.gbcanoeing.org.uk and the official event website: www.kayakpl.com

This regular monthly event is is organised by the resident physiotherapists at Salisbury Hospital for their out-patients. On this visit the pre-preg carbon fibre AFO was of particular success.

Dorset Orthopaedic’s lightweight bespoke AFO is moulded to fit client’s limbs and then manufactured from the same materials found in Formula 1 racing cars at Dorset Orthopaedic’s manufacturing facilities in Ringwood.

The one fitted this week allowed a teenager who suffers from weakness in the knees due to a spinal injury, to stand and walk a short distance without his crutches for the first time on his long journey to recovery.

The AFO gave enough support so this trumpet playing teenagers knees wouldn’t give way while standing and he was able to freely swing his legs.

This musical teenager can now choose to stand or sit while playing his trumpet in his orchestra.

Dorset Orthopaedic’s wide range of clinical expertise in orthotics and prosthetics, plus the manufacturing facilities to produce bespoke products allow clients to explore the possibilities of living life without limits.

Call to discover how we can help you.

FOUR national teams will be battling for top honours at this summer’s fifth British Beach Polo Championships in Poole.

For the first time since the annual two-day event came to Sandbanks, riders from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales will locking mallets during a closely-fought seaside competition.

As well as the beach polo, there will also be a food village, charity fashion show and a charity race between an Audi Q7 and pony in aid of Help for Heroes.

On Saturday,the organisers have pledged to donate £1 to the charity for every pair of white jeans donned for finals day.

Help for Heroes ambassador Neil Heritage, from Poole, was among guests who were attending the launch event yesterday.

The former soldier was injured in Iraq in 2004 and the charity helped fund new sockets for his prosthetic legs from Dorset Orthopaedic.

He now works as a PE teacher at a local school.

The British Olympic Association has confirmed the Royal Yachting Association’s nominations of Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes – veterans of the 2008 Games – in the 49er class, and Alison Young will make her Olympic debut in the Laser Radial event.

Helena Lucas joins the GB Paralympics ranks in the one-person 2.4mR event and completes the lineup for this summer’s Games at Weymouth and Portland.

“We’ve now got 13 teams in the 13 events – Olympic and Paralympic,” said Stephen Park, the RYA Olympic manager and sailing team leader.

“As we go into the Games, I can honestly say hand on heart that we’ve got people who’ve got potential to [win a] medal in every single event. We’ve never had that before.

“That doesn’t mean to say that we’ll [win a] medal in every event – far from it – but in terms of preparing a good team, the sailors have done an incredible job to date.

“Having teams selected at this stage provides us with an opportunity for them to pull together, to bond as a group and really allows that to add an extra dimension to their preparation in the last weeks up until the Games.”

The four sailors are the final additions to the British team for the Olympics and Paralympics.

The three-times Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie will represent TeamGB in the Finn class, Paul Goodison will be the Laser representative and Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson will race in the Star class.

Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw are the selections for the male and female RS:X events respectively, while Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell team up for men’s 470.

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark are the women’s 470 representatives, while Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor will compete in the women’s match racing event.

Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell will represent ParalympicsGB in the Skud class, while John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas have been chosen for the Sonar event.

Paralympic sailing facts

• Sailing made its full Paralympic debut in Sydney in 2000.
• Paralympic sailors compete in three categories – single-handed keelboat (2.4mR), two-handed keelboat (Skud-18) and three-handed keelboat (Sonar).
• The 2012 Paralympic sailing competition will feature 80 athletes.
• Great Britain has never won a Paralympic sailing medal

As sponsors of Stephen Thomas’s prosthetics legs Dorset Orthopaedic are excited at the prospect of seeing a Paralympic medal. Will this be the year Stephen Thomas, John Robertson and Hannah Stodel  bring home the first sailing medal for Team GB?

With a record 66 international caps, Rob has taken the national team from a world ranking of 56 to the current position of nine since taking over the captaincy in 2010. Having represented Great Britain at both the European and World Championships, all that remains is to make the Paralypmic team at the selection process in this May.

“Life’s all about embracing opportunities that come your way,” the father-of-one said.

“I got into volleyball just after Britain won the bid for the games in 2005, which meant there was more funding going into the sport. It’s an amazing opportunity and being the captain of the team is a huge honour.”

Rob was 15 when he agreed to have his right leg amputated below the knee. After he had been born with a deformity, doctors said he could either have the foot removed or face a lifetime of operations.

“It was definitely life-changing,” Rob said, “but I have never, ever regretted it. I sometimes think it’s an easier decision to make when you’re younger – you tend not to think about it so much – you just get on with it. I now mentor other people who are faced with the same situation.”

Dorset Orthopaedic is a community where people who have similar experiences come together. Part of our ethos of supporting our clients extends to embracing these kinds of mentoring relationships. If you are looking for support? We are only a phone call away.

Every weekday, Rob spends two hours on-court training at Roehampton University, London, a further two hours at the gym and somehow manages to fit in an eight-hour day as a property management consultant in London.

“My family are amazing – very supportive,” he said, adding that he does not get home to Buckden to see his wife Claire and 18-month-old daughter, Grace, as often as he would like.

The next few months Rob will spend in training and, if selected, he will take part in the Team GB launch in the first week of July. Following that, it will off to a training camp before moving to the Olympic Village in mid-August.

But his success to date is not without precedent. His uncles were England cricketers Peter and Dick Richardson and his sister competed for Great Britain at dressage.

“Perceptions are gradually changing about what the Paralympic games are all about – the patronising attitudes seem to be shifting,” he said.

“I’ve got a feeling London’s going to blow it out of the water.”

Lyndon, 16, from Crook in County Durham, lost his legs, part of an arm and the tips of the fingers on his other hand when he contracted meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia when he was eight.

He was taught to swim at the age of two by his grandfather and last year set a British record for the 150m individual medley in his class.

Last year Lyndon competed in the Great North Swim and raised £300 for the Great North Air Ambulance Service. He also works as a young ambassador for the Meningitis Trust, and helps a family whose son has lost both legs.

Lyndon was nominated by his Mum, Tammy, who said: “I’m so proud of Lyndon, he not only works hard to achieve his goals, but constantly puts others before himself. The prize will help him achieve his dream of competing at the 2016 Paralympics in Brazil.”

It was Lyndon’s hard work, determination and ­willingness to help others despite everything stood out for the judges.

Lyndon said: “The win is fantastic news for me and my family. I want people to see that no matter how hard it might seem at first, with hard work and determination you can achieve your goals.”

Usually seen running on her prosthetic blades made by Dorset Orthopaedic a recent operation to trim the bones in her legs left her unable to practice the sports she loves for a short time. During this down time Lydia was given the opportunity to try wheelchair racing for the first time and she embraced the opportunity with gusto.

A natural sportsperson Lydia came third in her class, finishing in just over 22 minutes less than half the 45 minutes allowed. Her confident finish belied the nerves she felt just before the start of the race as she said

“I really wasn’t scared before the race, but when I got to the starting line I definitely had butterflies,”

Despite being “very, very, very tired”, Lydia’s thoughts have already turned to her fundraising. As the youngest patron Help for Heroes Lydia was raising money for injured service personnel and she said

“Before today I’d raised about £2,000, but I wouldn’t mind getting to £6,000,”.

In recent years Lydia has raised over £60,000 for her chosen charity showing determination and skill usually seen in people many years her senior. Here at Dorset Orthopaedic we think Lydia is ‘one to watch’.

Is Lydia a paralympic star in the making?

Whatever Lydia choses to do in the future Dorset Orthopaedic will there to help her live a life without limits.

Aimee comments on the opportunity prosthetics provide to remove societies conceptual limits of what limbs are.  She illustrates this by recounting how removing the visual constraints of what a human leg ‘should’ look like she was able to be part of the development of the pioneering running blade that was based upon a cheetahs leg.

As always Aimme’s insights are thought provoking.

This is the Sixth instalment of Matt’s Living Free SAFO blog: (Blog 1, Blog 2, Blog 3, Blog 4, Blog 5)

“I sit holding my first-born. A new life, the fruit of life’s longing for itself. I am immediately overcome by the wash of emotion and relief known only by the parents of healthy newborn children.

In the days, and months, of recovery following the motorcycle accident that robbed me of my dreams and nearly ended my life, I could not imagine what would ever be worth living for again – now I know.

As I gaze at my daughter I am in awe of her mother and at the Creator who designed bodies capable of the awesome feat that is natural childbirth and the mystery that is unconditional love.

I am humbled and lifted to the greatest heights of joy and excitement that I have ever known – my heart is whole again. All the pain and disappointment and the struggles of learning to live with my disability are forgotten – all that is left is the thankfulness that I am here to enjoy this, and that is enough.

I thought I had lost it all. I never imagined that anything would ever bring me as much satisfaction as scoring the game winning points, or that I could feel as much love as being hoisted on the shoulders of jubilant team mates. I never thought there was a greater unity than the bond formed by men who shed blood, sweat and tears together week in and week out. I was wrong! There is a place where the strength of men is needed more, where the hours of devotion are longer, and the taste of success sweeter. There is a domain where pretenders are exposed and only the valiant win through. The battleground is the hearts of our future and the adventure is fatherhood.

Most of the men I know are driven by a cause – the pursuit of some passion or some great adventure. We all have battles to fight and we long to find a beauty to rescue. I enter my challenge with renewed intentionality today. My strength, my health, and my life, are needed again. I will return to the motionless plates waiting in the gym, I will return to the empty miles of road waiting to be run. This time not for me – for my future and for my family.

I find my purpose anew today. I choose to live free today. It’s my daughter’s birthday.”

Find out more about treatment of drop foot with the SAFO and other orthotics at Dorset Orthopaedic.

Read Matt SAFO blog here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

The Sonar class, was the only one of the three Paralympic classes to leave the dock, but the 22 knot conditions, coupled with big waves were deemed unsuitable for racing, allowing Robertson, Stodel and Thomas, who went into the day with a three point lead, to keep hold of their gold medal position.

“We’ve won, and had an awesome week but sadly no sailing today,” said helm Robertson. “It was a bit disappointing not to get sailing and surf around out there for a bit, but that’s the way it goes unfortunately. It was getting a bit too fruity and the waves were huge!

“It’s a good result for us for the week – not that it was so important for us to win here. It was more of a process thing for us to get everything ticked off for [the Paralympics in] September.

“We’re quite pleased with how everything is going– it’s all good.”

Their next step in preparation for the Paralympics is the Delta Lloyd Regatat in Medemblik from May 22^nd till May 26^th

Dorset Orthopaedic provides Steve Thomas, a bi-lateral amputee, with his sailing prosthetics. Steve collaborated with Bob Watts, Managing Director of Dorset Orthopaedic, to design the best prosthetics for his Paralympic sailing role. Key features include the use of non-corosive materials, keeping the moving parts to a minimum and establishing the ideal centre of gravity.